Car-coupling



(No Model.) I P. D. BAKER.

GAR COUPLING- No. 570,976. Patented Nov. 10, 1 896.

wi m I llmrnn Snares PATENT QFFICE.

FRANK D. BAKER, OF KNOXVILLE, IOWA.

CAR-COUPLING.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 570,976, dated November10, 1896.

Application filed July 22, 1895.

To (all whom, it ntrtz concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK D. BAKER, a citizen of the United States, anda resident of Knoxville, in the county of Marion and State of Iowa, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Couplers, of

' which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, referencebeing had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of thisspecification.

This invention relates to improvements in automatic car-couplers of thevertical-plane type, in which the knuckle is thrown to an open positionby the raising of the lockingpin and in which the locking-pin isautomatically raised by the knuckle in its passage to the lockedposition. In this class of couplers, so far as I am aware, the nearestapproach to my invention are those in which gravity alone is dependedupon to return the locking-pin to locked position after being raised bythe knuckle of the coupler, or wherein the force of the concussionresulting from the coupling action is relied upon to lift the pin withsufficient violence to cause its immediate return by being struck by thetailpiece of the coupler as it moves to locked position. Both of theseconstructions are objectionable in practice, because in wet or freezingweather cinders and dust or ice and snow lodge upon the coupler andfrequently hold the pin in an elevated position, and the latterconstruction is but a slight improvement, for the same result will occurshould the cars come together gently or without a sufficiently violentshock to produce the desired result.

The object of myinvention is to insure not only the positive opening ofthe knuckle upon the raising of the locking-pin, but also the positiveraising'and lowering of the lockingpin when the knuckle is moved tolocked position, regardless of the force with which it is moved, wherebyit is rendered impossible for the knuckle to move to locked positionwithout positively moving the locking-pin and automatically lockingitself in that position. This object is attained by the devicesillustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which-- Figure l is a planview of a coupler embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a section thereof onthe line 2 2 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction indicated by thearrows. Fig.

Serial No. 556,696. (No model.)

3 is a transverse section on the line 3 30f Fig. 2, looking in thedirection indicated by the arrows. Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectionthrough the draw-bar, showing the knuckle in plan View and thelocking-pin in section. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the knuckle;Fig. 6, a detail end view of the knuckle-tailpiece, and Figs. 7 and 8detail views of the lockingpm.

Similar letters of reference indicate the same parts in the severalfigures of the drawlugs.

Referring by letter to the accompanying drawings, A indicates thedraw-bar, B the coupler-head, and O the knuckle pivoted to thecoupler-head, all of which parts may be of the usual or any desiredconstruction, the coupler-head being suitably chambered to receive theknuckle and its tailpieceD,in which latter, in conjunction with thelocking-pin, resides the novel features of my invention. This tailpieceis provided at its end with an upper and a lower incline or bevel E andF, respectively, said incline being parallel with each other, theinclines E being shorter than the width of the upper face of thetailpiece, while the lower incline preferably extends the full width ofthe tailpiece. The essential feature of the arrangement of these twobeveled surfaces with relation to each other is that the lower beveledface shall extend forward of the upper bevel or further toward theknuckle on the are described by the out-. line of the end of thetailpiece.

The locking-pin G is notched or cut away at a suitable point in theforward side thereof, as at H, and immediately above this notch the pinis obliquely beveled, so as to form an oblique face I, while the lowerwall of the notch J may or may not be beveled or curved, as preferred.In practice the projection J works upon the lower bevel F of thetailpiece, and the oblique face I is engaged by thecorner K of thetailpiece when the latter.

is moving to locked position so as to receive the pin. The upper wall ofthe notch H,

formed by the projection L, at which the oblique face I terminates,rides upon the upper face of the tailpiece and upon the bevel E.

Assuming the knuckle to be in the closed position, if the pin be raised,the projection J will engage the lower incline or beveled face F of thetailpiece and force the knuckle to turn upon its pivot, the tailpiecethereof moving upwardly through the notch H, between the projections Jand L, until the knuckle is open wide, whereupon the pin being releasedit will drop back to position, with the top of the obliquely-beveledface I about on a plane with the upper corner K of the tailpiece, butbehind the same. When the cars come together and the coupler is turnedupon its pivot by its companion, the corner K of the tailpiece willimpinge against the oblique face I, force the pin upwardly, and pass onthrough the notch H into locked position, with the tailpiece restingagainst the walls of the coupler-head. In this operation the projectionL first rides upon the top of the tailpiece and then down the incline E,from which it drops down in front of the shoulder M upon the tailpiece,thus looking the coupler in closed position. In this raising andlowering action of the pin, however, gravity is not at all depended uponto draw the pin down to locked position, but, on the contrary, as soonas the projection L begins to ride down the upper bevel E the projectionJ on the pin is engaged by the lower bevel F upon the tailpiece and thepin is thereby positively and forcibly drawn down to locked position.

-'1o accomplish this result, obviously the notch II in the locking-pinmust be of less height than the extreme height of the tail:

. piece, or, in other words, of a width substantially corresponding tothe distance between the parallel upper and lower bevelled faces of thetailpiece, and while it is not at all essential that the lower beveledface of the tailpiece shall extend the full width of the tailpiece it isessential that it shall begin in a vertical plane substantiallycoincident with the upper end of the beveled face E, and shall extend toa vertical plane beyond the termination of the upper bevel. This latterrequirement is necessary in order that when the pin is in lockedposition, as illustrated in Fig. 3, the projection J shall underlie thelower bevel F of the tailpiece, so that when the pin is moved verticallythe projection will make contact with the lower bevel and force the jawopen.

It will thus be seen that with the parts arranged as proposed no matterhow gently the cars come together the knuckle cannot be moved to closedposition without automatically and positively raising and lowering thelocking-pin and locking itself in closed position, therefore relyingneither upon gravity nor upon the force of the impact or shock ofcoupling to accomplish this desirable object.

Having described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure byLetters Patent, 1s-

1. In a car-coupling of the class described, the combination of apivot-ed knuckle, a tailpiece on said knuckle provided with parallelupper and lower beveled faces and having a fiat surface directly in therear of the upper beveled face, said upper beveled face terminating witha locking-shoulder and the lower beveled face extending beyond the upperbevel, and a locking-pin having a notch of a length substantially equalto the distance between the upper and lower. beveled faces of thetailpiece said notch having an upper and lower wall, the upper wall ofthe notch having a beveled face arranged in the path of the upper orflat surface of the tailpiece and the lower wall arranged in the path ofthe lower beveled face of the tailpiece, whereby the locking-pin isfirst raised and then forced to its seat by the swinging movement of thetailpiece, substantially as shown and described.

2. In a car-coupling of the class described, the combination with alocking-pin havinga notch therein and a beveled face at the upper sidethereof, of a pivoted knuckle, atailpiece provided with parallel upperand lower beveled faces and having a flat surface directly in the rearof the termination of the upper beveled surface, the lower beveled sureface extending beyond the vertical plane of the upper beveled face, anda locking-shoulder between the forward ends of said beveled parallelfaces to engage the locking-pin, said locking-pin also having a shoulderarranged in the path of the lower beveled face of the tailpiece, wherebythe said pin is forced to its seat or locked position by the swingingmovement of the said tailpiece, substantially as shown and described.

FRANK D. BAKER.

Witnesses Opus. 13. BOWEN, M. E. SHIELDS.

